Best Cheap Widescreen Monitors

I do most of my day to day work on laptops, but a majority of the time my laptop is docked and I’m using a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Portability is great, but having a large screen (or two) is the best for productivity. A few years back 22 – 23″ was the sweet spot for monitors. Now it seems like 25 – 27″ is becoming more the norm. And that means the major manufacturers are cranking out affordable monitors in that size range. What that means for you is you can get a nice 27″ monitor for well under $200. Below are the Best Cheap Widescreen Monitors for 2017.

Key Monitor Features

Panel Type – Most monitors available today are IPS panels, but the older TN panels are still also used.

Aspect Ratio – The ratio of the width of a display to its height. The universal standard for HD is an aspect ratio of 16:9.

Brightness – The brightness of a monitor describes the luminance of the display, or how much light it projects. Brightness is measured in candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Greater brightness is often associated with greater perceived picture beauty and clarity.

Inputs – The most common monitor inputs found today are VGA, DVI & HDMI. HDMI has become the standard input, with VGA available to support older video cards.

Speakers – Some monitors will have embedded speakers. This is a nice feature to reduce clutter on your desk, but don’t expect any amazing sound quality.

Best Cheap Widescreen Monitors for 2017

Samsung 27″ SE310 LED Monitor

Samsung has a strong entry in the 27″ market with the SE310. While it uses an older TN display panel, it still delivers 16:9 HD video with an impressive 1 ms response time. One negative is its lower 1,000:1 contrast ratio. The Samsung SE310 has DVI, HDMI & VGA inputs.

Acer G277HL Abid 27″ Monitor

Acer’s 27″ monitor is an IPS panel with DVI, HDMI & VGA inputs. Like the Samsung it has a 16:9 aspect ratio, but has a slower response time at 4 ms. The Acer does have a very high contrast ratio at 100,000,000:1

ASUS VE278H 27″

Asus’s VE278H has 2 x HDMI ports, 1 x VGA port, and a stereo speaker connection. It has a decent 2 ms response time, and 50,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The VE278H has built in speakers which can be a nice feature, but no DVI input.